Spring Equinox Around The World

Folk dancers in national costumes perform during the festivities marking the holiday of Nowruz in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Nowruz, central Asia's spring "New Year" holiday, falls on March 21. Horsemen take part in the traditional Central Asian sport of Buzkashi, or goat dragging, in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Players grab a goat carcass from the ground while riding their horses and try to score by placing it in their opponent's goal. Traditionally dressed Kyrgyz women dance in Bishkek during the annual celebration of Nowruz (New Year) A dancer performs in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan A Turkish Kurd jumps over a bonfire as people gather to celebrate the Nowruz in Ankara Afghan children play on a swing outside the Karti Sakhi Shrine in Kabul at the start of Nowruz, the Afghan New Year. Nowruz, one of the biggest festivals of the war-scarred nation, marks the spring equinox. Afghan men carry a holy Islamic flag at the Sakhi holy shrine in Kabul as part of the celebrations surrounding Nowruz Actors perform at Ritan Park in Beijing to mark the first day of Spring A performer plays the role of the Emperor during a re-enactment of an ancient ceremony of Qing Dynasty Emperors praying at Ritan Park in Beijing, on the first day of Spring A man cooks eggs during celebrations of Cimburijada or "Festival of Scrambled Eggs", in a park in the central Bosnian town of Zenica. People celebrate Cimburijada by gathering by the river, preparing scrambled eggs and sharing breakfast with friends and visitors of their city as a traditional way of marking the first day of spring every year. Pakistani Hindus throw coloured water on each other during the spring festival of Holi in Lahore